From the editorial advisory board: Resolutions

"Sustainability" is the theme for my resolutions this year. The Environmental Protection Agency defines sustainability this way:

"Everything that we need for our survival and well-being depends on our natural environment. Sustainability creates and maintains the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling the social, economic and other requirements of present and future generations."

If we don't get "sustainability" right, nothing else will matter. So what can one person do?

Spend time advocating for sustainability with elected representatives. The federal government must lead global initiatives to combat climate change, protect the food supply and develop alternative energy technologies. At the state level we need strict regulations on hydraulic fracturing, including outright bans in residential and environmentally sensitive areas. At the local level we need action on congestion, transportation and housing issues.

Drive less. Walk and bike more. Aside from the obvious reduction in greenhouse gases, walking and biking contribute to overall fitness and happiness.

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Eat less animal products and buy food locally when possible. Factory farming methods, including the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, is bad for the environment. It is also bad for our health. Locally grown, organic food is delicious, better for the planet, and helps the local economy.

I am a hypocrite. I live in a big house, drive a gas-guzzling car and buy stuff I don't need. But this year I resolve to do a little better than last year.

We, the regulars who use the East Boulder Recreation Center several days a week know that during early months of the year the place is overwhelmed by fellow citizens who are seeking to live up to their New-Year resolutions.

Like on Jan. 1, when the center was open for six hours and nearly every machine was in use throughout the day and each swimming lane had bodies in it. It was also clear that many mothers were left home preparing the appropriate festive meal while fathers were told to take the children to the "gym."

We, the regulars, smile and make informal bets on how long before the resolutions will be forgotten and the center will be back to its "normal" load. Based on experience a good guess is mid-February although some of us remember that once the wave didn't fade until mid-March.

The scholars who study people and their resolutions have determined that 88 percent of folks who set New Year's resolutions fail them. This is an interesting number because the same scholars report that 52 percent of those who participated in the study were confident of their success at the beginning of the survey.

Now it would seem that 22 percent of the men achieved their goals but women did better than men when they made their resolutions known to friends.

I like what the ancient Babylonians promised their god Janus at the beginning of a new year. "I will return all borrowed objects and pay my debts."

I did not make one resolution on New Year's Day, and I haven't for decades. Though I know that a lot of people do. For example, on Jan. 2, the Louisville Recreation Center is a madhouse of strange faces. On Jan. 3, not so much so, and there is an exponential decline in strange faces subsequently. But on Jan. 2 every machine is occupied and every weight station is in use. The parking lot resembles nothing so much as the Boulder Whole Foods' lot. The big difference is that in Louisville parking spaces are so big that you can fit an entire car in one. So at the Louisville Rec, we regulars squeeze ourselves in and wait, and

in a week or so we see the same old faces.

Instead of making grand resolutions on one day of the year, I try to make spontaneous little improvements throughout the year. It is less onerous. For example: I finally got an electric toothbrush and food processor. I will cook more at home, eat less in restaurants, hopefully lose a bit of weight, and then more effectively perform basic dental hygiene.

This reminds me of a puzzling fact of life. The good habits are hard to get into and easy to get out of. The bad habits are easy to get into and hard to get out of. What if this were reversed? I guess the Whole Foods' lot would have no cars.

People in Boulder might be posting New Year's resolutions on their refrigerators such as fighting a higher dam at Gross Reservoir (thus encouraging Denver to improve conserving water), reducing pollution/traffic by not driving a car one day a week, having local growth and development pay its full cost, getting fit, reducing personal debt, making new friends, writing a member of Congress each day, starting a veggie garden or perhaps lobbying for cleaner, if any, oil and gas fracking. These all have merit.

There will be no new resolutions for me this year because I am still working on those of last year. Please don't think I have come to the conclusion that I have no need for improvement, nor that I have run out of steam for needed changes. Why would someone invent new promises or goals for 2013 when goals from last year are indeed "work in progress?" My plate seems pretty full and continuing work is needed on more fly-fishing, more biking, and more kale production.

I have observed friends who have made and followed through with resolutions that seem to be very fulfilling. They include volunteering at the Emergency Family Assistance Association (EFFA), Community Food Share, Habitat for Humanity, Mother House, and the Boulder Homeless Shelter. Others have done an overseas work trip in a third world location. Reducing waste, consuming less and helping others in need seem to bring happiness that is least expected.

Nothing prompts the urge to purge old habits like an extended season of partying with folks we should get along with better, feeling harried by gift giving and its financial strain, all topped off with tinsel mania and ubiquitous Christmas music. Holiday season in America is costly and overstimulating so naturally people rush for the door of Jan. 1 seeking a more focused chapter of life.

And hence our annual fetish for announcing New Year's resolutions.

But resolutions prompted by an yearly sell-by date come from the head and usually don't make for lasting change. A day of the year is too arbitrary, and the frenzied holiday exercise is entirely external to who we really are, so they cannot motivate us in any depth.

The only change that takes a real hold is that which comes from a change of heart, a sober awareness of why change is needed and what it should look like. We need to ask what strengths and weaknesses we bring to the goal. What new tools and support do I need to teach new habits? Are there people who will be an obstacle because they have a vested interest in my staying the same? Indeed, am I that obstacle who benefits by staying the same?

For change-seekers the best step is to go inward first, meditating on what's true, what's valuable, visualizing success and overcoming the hardships. Its takes a lot more than a New Year's buzz.

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